Saucon Valley baseball team has a productive week

The Panthers, while trying to lock up a Colonial League playoff berth, found themselves in serious trouble following a 3-2 loss to Southern Lehigh on Monday night.

The Panthers needed to defeat Palmerton and Palisades on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, to secure a spot in the league's Final Four.

Saucon Valley trailed lightly regarded Palmerton 7-4 before rallying for four runs in the last of the seventh to pull out a dramatic 8-7 victory.

The next day, sophomore left-hander Brian Wildrick hurled a five-hit shutout as the Panthers (13-7 overall, 11-5 league) sewed up the automatic bid with a 2-0 triumph over Palisades.

"We had expectations to get in the districts (which they qualified for earlier) and fight for a league playoff spot," said Saucon Valley coach Phil Sams, who's in his third season.

The Panthers were sluggish for six innings against Palmerton before pulling it out in their final at-bat. Tommy Misiak's two-run single made it 7-6, Bryan Schoch walked with the bases loaded to force in the tying run, and Adam Hough followed with a walk-off single.

"(Against Palmerton) we were flat," Sams said. "We might have had a hangover from the Southern Lehigh loss because some of the kids didn't get back till past 10 o'clock on Monday. Then in the bottom of the seventh we came out and smoked the ball. To score those runs was huge."

The strength of the Panthers has been their pitching staff which consists of Schoch (4-2, 2.03 ERA), the staff ace, Wildrick (4-2, 2.97) and senior Austin Cawley (3-1, 4.47). Sneska has filled in effectively in relief.

"Our pitching has been the main reason we've been winning," Sams said. "Those guys have doing awesome. Knock on wood they've been efficient in that their pitch count hasn't been too high. It's a long season and you don't want to kill them too early."

Schock has hurled several gems including a shutout against Northwestern. Cawley pitched a no-hitter with 11 strikeouts against Northern Lehigh, and Wildrick was outstanding Wednesday against Palisades.

"Palisades battled Brian but he kept persevering and going after them," Sams said. "He was sharp from the get-go, and we played pretty good defense behind him."

Sams also has high regard for pitching coach Erik Gough, a former player at Saucon Valley, and assistant coach Gary Laub.

"Erik has done a fantastic job working with the (pitchers) and he shows them a lot of trust too," Sams said. "We have a really good staff and I really appreciate that."